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Walter Herzog

Category

Keynote

Document Type

Paper

Abstract

The purpose of this abstract is to provide an overview over my career activities in the areas of muscle and sport biomechanics. I started in the area of sport biomechanics as an undergraduate student at the Federal Technical Institute in Zurich with the intention of becoming a track and field coach. During my graduate studies, I realized that the science of human motion was more fascinating to me than the possibility to coach athletes, and so I pursued a career that led me to do work on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of muscle contraction. For the past decade, I have tried to apply the knowledge gained on the molecular and cellular level to practical problems in sport and rehabilitation. One of the lessons learnt in these endeavours was that intuition is good in science, but reliance on intuition alone often leads to incorrect conclusions. Therefore, checking your intuition at all times is essential. Another lesson I learnt was that, particularly in sport science, the dramatic breakthroughs in technique and material development (Fosbury flop, skate skiing, etc.) often come from athletes and coaches rather than scientists, thus working with athletes and coaches, rather than merely using them as subjects of your studies is essential.

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